• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Penicillin G Injection

Hannah P.

Hannah P.

New Born Pup
Joined
Apr 2, 2017
Messages
48
Reaction score
19
Points
155
My 4ish year old piggy Little Boy has been dealing with bloat for the past week or so. We've been trying to keep him comfortable with Meloxicam, using infant gas medication, massaging his belly, syringe feeding, etc. He's been doing okay and still has some appetite, his poops haven't been great but there has been some. However, that is not the reason for this post. We brought him to the vet on Saturday and they gave him fluids and a Baytril injection, as well as more fluids and another dose of Baytril to go home. I had a terrible time giving him the injections yesterday, so I brought him back to the vet today so they could give him more fluids and Baytril. Unfortunately, the vet tech gave him a Penicillin G injection instead of Baytril. The vet said that he should be okay as it was a low dose, but Penicillin is never used in guinea pigs because it causes severe diarrhea and kills off all the good gut bacteria. I've given him probiotics per the vets instructions, but I'm terribly anxious about this. He's already having major gut issues with the bloat and now this. :(

I was just hoping to see if anyone had any kind of experience or anything that could ease my mind, because everything I read is telling me this could be fatal. I want to trust the vet, but I can't help but feel like she may have downplayed the severity of the situation, as it was the technicians mistake. I'm going to contact our other vet to get a second opinion tomorrow as well.
 
Oral penicillin should never be given.
Injected penicillin can be given as a last resort medication in certain situations - I’ve actually had a rabbit who had to have injected penicillin (they also should not have oral penicillin), and I know there are others on here whose piggies have had to have injected penicillin.
Now obviously your piggy should not have had it in this situation, but as it doesn’t go near the digestive system it is not going to cause any digestive issues.

Has your vet given your piggy any gut stimulants - emeprid, cisapride?
Are you weighing him daily to make sure enough syringe feed is getting into him?

Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
 
He hasn't gotten any gut stimulants as of now, they were going to wait to see if the bloat resolved with supportive care before trying that. They said it could potentially have worse side effects. He did lose weight, but I have been weighing him and been diligent with syringe feeding. He has been eating hay on his own and some vet approved veggies. I hadn't been giving any veg for a while in fear of making the bloat worse. Gas has definitely been moving along his GI tract and escaping, but it never fully resolves.

My partner works with an exotic pet specialist, so we have texted her to see what she thinks. I just feel so bad, I understand that mistakes do happen and I work in the vet med field myself, but I can't stand the thought of anything happening to my sweet piggy because of an accident like this.
 
When my girl had bloat, I was told no veggies until it was resolved. We gave her critical care via syringe every 3-4 hours, and she had hay in her cage. I think I'd stick with no veggies until he's back to normal with normal poos. With my girl, we were fortunate that it resolved fully without recurrence, but it's apparently not uncommon for things to move along but not fully resolve. The weight loss will be related to intake, so if it's going down, up the amount of syringe feeding to help stabilise his weight (variation is okay, so long as it's small; you're looking for the trend).
Never a bad idea to get a second opinion if you're nervous; they may have additional advice concerning the bloat and what to watch for in regards to the penicillin.
Moving gut is good, and poo is good; no poo would be far more concerning. You said he's on probiotics, which is certainly good, since his gut biome is out of whack from the bloat; any chance you have another piggy that could supply some fresh poos to try some poo soup?

Keep up the good work with him, and we'll be wishing you both well.
 
This may sound a bit silly but it has been known to work. Pop your piggy in an open box and pop the box on top of the washing machine on a spin cycle as this can help move the gas along.
 
That was what I had thought about veggies, but they said I can give him small amounts of cucumber and carrot, and there's certain gas causing veggies that I should avoid. I have increased the amount of critical care that he's getting. He was having fairly normal poops for a while even when bloated.

He began having diarrhea this morning and I've brought him to our other vet, who is more of a specialist and very knowledgeable about guinea pigs. He is going to keep him overnight and do intensive supportive care, as well as try to find the right medication to manage his discomfort while trying to restore his gut biome. His temp is low, and he's had a history of being unable to regulate his own body temperature. The original vet I brought him to is taking full responsibility for the mistake and has been in contact with the vet he is with now.

We also did hear back from the other exotics specialist vet, and said that the penicillin injection could cause secondary enterotoxemia and anorexia/gut shutdown. She said to not let him eat his own poops as it would just reintroduce the penicillin to his system, and feed him a healthy pigs poop. Unfortunately at the moment my other two pigs are both on meds, one's on meloxicam and one is on steroids, so I don't think I should do that. She also said not to give oral meloxicam as it can also cause further gut upset. She also mentioned treatments she would begin in a worse case scenario, but I'm going to try not to think about that at the moment and I'll just let my vet do his thing and we will take it one step at a time. Good grief.
 
Sorry you’re going through this with your piggy. I don’t have any medical advice, but I’m sending healing vibes your way and I hope your piggy gets through this.
 
Poos lag behind, so remember that what you see in poos isn't really the current status but an indicator of the past gut status.

I'm glad that the other vet is taking responsibility. That's very professional of them. So sorry to hear he's having trouble with his temperature; it's so hard when they're struggling like that and for the best if he stays with a vet who can monitor and mitigate that in addition to keeping up the syringe feed. Take the chance to take care of yourself ... make sure you're getting sleep.
 
Thank you for your kind words. He's been back home since Wednesday night, as the vet didn't want to keep him any longer since they tend to do better at home rather than a stressful environment. He's doing better right now, but yesterday morning he looked terrible, he couldn't mask his discomfort and was all hunched up, teeth grinding, etc and it broke my heart to see him like that. I gave more meloxicam and syringe fed him a special type of food that the vet provided and he's doing much better today. The special food is a bit like critical care but I've never heard of it before. It's an appetite stimulant and helps with GI tract motility and digestion. It's called Sherwood Pet Health Emergency Kit for guinea pigs and it's worked wonders for him, his appetite has been fabulous last night and today. He hasn't pooped much yet, but the poops that he does have look better than they have in quite some time. I wouldn't say we're out of the woods just yet but I'm hopeful.
 
Have just caught this thread. Sorry your piggy has been unwell and glad to hear he seems to be improving.
I just wanted to add, in your first post you said you had been giving him infant gas medication. This is something not usually recommended for piggies, my understanding is that is because it works by helping babies to burp out gas but as guinea pigs can't burp it can sometimes make things worse. A gut motility drug such as emiprid or metoclopramide is usually a much better option.
Hope Little Boy will soon be back to normal x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top